(20th century - 21st century - 22nd century - other centuries)


As a means of recording the passage of time, the 21st Century is the current century, lasting from 2001-2100. The twenty-first century is the first century of the third millennium (2001 - 3000).

The increasing prevalence of global communications and encounters with other calendars (Islamic calendar, Chinese calendar, Persian calendar, Hebrew calendar) suggest that the terms "21st century" and "the third millennium" have a substantial cultural bias. Some futurists suggest simply abandoning the idea of "centuries", setting the start date back to the beginning of human urbanization in the 4th millennium BC, making this the seventh millennium. Within that, some suggest also adopting a cyclic time model based on global climate change, which they view as the macro-equivalent of the annual seasons.

Table of contents
1 Important developments, events, achievements
2 Influential people in politics as of 2003
3 Influential people in technology as of 2003
4 Influential people in science as of 2003
5 Influential people in mathematics as of 2003
6 Influential people in art as of 2003
7 Predictions for the 21st century as of 2003
8 Other things
9 Decades and years

Important developments, events, achievements

Influential people in politics as of 2003

(In alphabetical order)

Influential people in technology as of 2003

Influential people in science as of 2003

  • Dr. Ronald Atlas, biologist, science ethicist, US bioterror advisor

Influential people in mathematics as of 2003

Influential people in art as of 2003

Predictions for the 21st century as of 2003

Please note that these predictions are controversial, and disputed by many other observers: they are listed here to show some late 20th century futurists' predictions of the events of the 21st century so that they may be compared with real events as they happen.

Other things

Decades and years

2000s   2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2020s 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
2030s 2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035 2036 2037 2038 2039
2040s 2040 2041 2042 2043 2044 2045 2046 2047 2048 2049
2050s 2050 2051 2052 2053 2054 2055 2056 2057 2058 2059
2060s 2060 2061 2062 2063 2064 2065 2066 2067 2068 2069
2070s 2070 2071 2072 2073 2074 2075 2076 2077 2078 2079
2080s 2080 2081 2082 2083 2084 2085 2086 2087 2088 2089
2090s 2090 2091 2092 2093 2094 2095 2096 2097 2098 2099
2100s 2100